Kimberly Jenkins

Kimberly Jenkins is a vocal advocate for women business owners. She is the former program director for the Duke in Silicon Valley Initiative and the co-founder of SOAR, a Google-funded initiative to help more Triangle women succeed in entrepreneurship.

The Delaware native first came to North Carolina to attend Duke University as an undergraduate student. She earned a bachelor’s in biology in 1976 and a doctorate in higher education administration in 1980 from Duke.

Kimberly’s first job was working for what was then a tiny company called Microsoft, creating the company’s education division. She left Bill Gates’ company and moved to Silicon Valley when Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs launched NeXT and recruited her to work on third-party software development.

Then she went to Washington, DC, where she led an Internet policy think tank before she returned to the area in 2003 to work for her alma mater as a professor and eventually assistant to the president and provost for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Kimberly created and launched an innovation and entrepreneurship initiative for Duke. With help from faculty, staff, students and alumni across the nation, Kimberly built an institution-wide initiative that has put Duke and Durham on the map for top notch entrepreneurship.

“I have built a connection between RTP and Silicon Valley,” Kimberly explains. “I call it a two-way bridge. I take students out there to study innovation and get internships and jobs in Silicon Valley. But I also do the reverse and bring people back to the Park. Part of what distinguishes our region is that there’s more diversity in RTP than in Silicon Valley.”

“Our students say that while many would eventually like to come back to the Research Triangle Park area, they want to spend some time in Silicon Valley to learn from the Mark Zuckerbergs of entrepreneurship,” Kimberly says.

Kimberly Jenkins is the Board of Directors at NC IDEA. With a background in Business Development, Kimberly Jenkins has a rich history of leadership and innovation. Explore their detailed professional journey, key connections, and contributions to the industry on our platform.